Sneakers don’t make you jump higher. They don’t make you run faster. And, no matter what Nike, adidas, and Reebok try to tell you, they don’t make you a better basketball player. Which is why I’m always puzzled by dudes who show up to a morning run at the YMCA rocking $200 sneakers. Unless you’re filthy rich and have nothing better to do with your money or you’re a legitimate sneakerhead who appreciates every single detail on a pair of sneaks, I can’t fathom why you’d want to pay two bills for a pair of Air Whoevers that don’t do anything but make you look like an idiot when you blow wide-open layups and get run off the court by your teammates.

It’s one the reasons that I was absolutely thrilled when I saw that Jeremy Evans won the 2012 NBA Slam Dunk Contest in a pair of Nike Air Max Destiny TB sneakers. For the record, I really wasn’t even super aware of the TBs prior to reading about the feat that Evans pulled off. They’re seemingly one of the most basic basketball sneakers you can buy from Nike. But, here’s what made me so excited about them: They cost $60. Yep, 60 bucks. One more time: 60 FREAKIN’ DOLLARS! Regardless of what you think about this year’s dunk contest, the guy who won it wore sneakers that cost about one-third as much as a pair of Nike LeBron 9 sneakers. Let that sink in.

Now, if Evans appeared in the dunk contest again next year, I’d expect him to make his appearance in a much more expensive sneaker. For Nike’s sake, they’d probably provide him with some sort of exclusive sneaker for the occasion. But, on Saturday, Evans proved just how little a sneaker has to do with on-court performance. No matter how hard the sneaker companies try to tell you that you need $200 sneakers to perform at your best on the court, that’s simply not true. Sneakers don’t make you jump higher. They don’t make you run faster. They don’t make you a better basketball player. And, as Evans showed, they don’t improve your chances of winning a dunk contest, either. Just ask the three other Slam Dunk Contest participants who lost to a guy wearing $60 sneakers.

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